U.S. Army NHRA Racing 63rd Annual NHRA U.S. Nationals Final Qualifying Report
With the preliminary action complete for this weekend’s 63rd annual NHRA U.S. Nationals, U.S. Army Racing 
teammates Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown will chase the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ biggest Wally Monday from the fourth and sixth positions on the ladder, respectively.
Both drivers were locked into the field coming into Sunday’s final two qualifying sessions and both teams utilized the day to continue preparing for Monday’s elimination rounds. The day was not without some excitement for both. Brown closed qualifying with the second-best run of the session when he posted a lap of 3.744 seconds at 326.95 mph behind the wheel of the Matco Tools/Mello Yello/U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), while “The Sarge” was seeking a run in that neighborhood when the powerplant of his U.S. Army Dragster for DSR exploded during his lap after a mechanical part failure.
“It just broke something and then it all let go,” said Schumacher, the eight-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion. “That can happen at any time. If you want to be a racecar driver, you have to expect that. There weren’t any signals that we had a problem. The car was on a good run, maybe low 3.70s (second), and something broke. And when it breaks with that much fuel volume and that much horsepower, it’s catastrophic. It’s the reason my dad put so much effort developing that canopy, because without it there would have been parts in the cockpit with me. It’s just another example of innovations making things safer out here. We can fix the car. The U.S. Army guys are phenomenal. They will change every part on that car and we’ll go right down the track tomorrow morning. I was on a really good run there and we have made a lot of progress this weekend. It’s Indy baby. The carnage is big, because it’s worth it.”
Schumacher, the 10-time and reigning U.S. Nationals Top Fuel champion, came up just short of scoring Saturday night’s $100,000-to-win Traxxas Nitro Shootout victory versus Steve Torrence, but his lap of 3.680 seconds at 330.31 mph earned him the fourth position in Monday’s race. His nine-man U.S. Army team led by crew chief Mike Green spent Sunday gathering more data with an eye toward Monday. In his first run, Schumacher lost traction before reaching the 1/8-mile mark and posted a run of 4.754 seconds at 152.74 mph. He came in back in Sunday’s fifth and final qualifying session and was on a good run before the failure caused his U.S. Army machine to slow to a pass of 4.111 seconds at 206.10 mph.
Schumacher will face Terry McMillen in Monday’s opening round. The two have never met in Indy, but have raced 23 times before. Schumacher holds a 20-3 advantage, including a victory in their only 2017 matchup in the second round at Las Vegas.
Brown got out of the gate fast with his run Friday night of 3.689 seconds at 329.75 mph. After Sunday’s opening pass resulted in Brown losing traction, his team led by co-crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswold went to work and put a fast machine under Brown for Sunday’s final qualifying run during the heat of the day.
“The field is set,” said Brown. “We are in a good spot. We would like to be higher, but the good part is we had a great lap to close out qualifying. And it’s setting us up for tomorrow. It’s going to be hotter tomorrow. We’ll have a different racetrack. We’ve got some tough competition, so we just have to come out and hit it hard just like we know how to do. We just have to focus on going rounds. Take it one at a time. It’s the U.S. Nationals. The cool part is that I have so much confidence in my team, because we attack race day like an Army Solider would. We adapt to certain situations making us versatile and that’s game plan we are going in with. We have to be able to adapt to everything that is thrown at us tomorrow and I feel confident in the way that we are going right now.”
Brown will take on Scott Palmer in the first round Monday. He has won all nine previous races with Palmer, most recently in the second round at Sonoma. The two have not met before in Indy.
Elimination rounds are set for at 11 a.m. Sunday with the FOX network and FS1 providing live coverage. The broadcast begins on FS1 with two hours of live coverage of eliminations starting at 11 a.m. and concluding on FOX at 1 p.m.
